Having some trouble choosing which of the following MESH systems to buy, and these are really the only two I'm looking at with my preference being to stick with Netgear.  

History:  Recently bought and moved into our house and had the cable come install internet.  1970's single story ranch house, approx 2400 sq ft. (including additions/remodel).  Have very little to no attic space, couldn't even find access.  Crawl space is tiny, don't even think I could get down there and I'm skinny.  My wife works remotely, so I had the coax installed into the office/guestroom where she spends most of her time.  Two young kids, don't watch a lot of TV.  Would like to someday install cameras in or around the house.  Property is almost 1 acre, and having eyes in the barn and future shop would be a bonus.  Don't have a good space to dedicate for a media center, will likely be the closet of the office.

We have 600mbps download/ 30mbps upload cable internet.  I'm currently using my almost 3 year old router (Nighthawk X4S router model R7800-AC2600) which we've had no problems with.  Just plugged in my new Nighthawk CM1000 modem (max 1 GBPS) , which replaced an 8+ year old Motorola surfboard (max 340mbps).  

Speed test on laptop in living room is like 30mbps down max (just 5.19 right now) and .24mbps up.  Ethernet connected to router is like 583 download, 31 up, ping 38.0ms, right now.  Earlier this afternoon I hit 634 down and 31.6 up, 27 ping, right after I switched modems and called Sparklight to make sure MAC address and new modem was all squared up with them.


I'm looking at these two mesh systems, with the understanding the main router will replace my Nighthawk R7800, and I can put one satellite in the living room and one in the family room.

Nighthawk Wifi 6 whole home mesh- costco $199

and this:

Netgear Orbi Wifi 6 whole home mesh

From my research, the satellites both have ethernet ports so I can plug a smart TV into each, as that's where I would put them.

Previous house, we knew we wouldn't be there long, so I wasn't going to mess with a split level house, we just ran a cat 5e cable to plug into my wife's HP docking hub thing in the office.  I will likely hardwire again since she is in the office where the router is located and her VPN plays better when she is not wireless.  

Sorry, I know very little about MESH, but they seem like the same thing.  Max I can see us getting or plans available is 1 gig.  I'm fully aware it's overkill, but the 600mpbs was $20 cheaper per month than what I was paying for 300mbps just 6 weeks ago (same company) but this house TDS is running fiber in the area, so hence the unlimited data and boost in plans, for which I'm not going to complain.  Moving from 600 up to 1 gig is only an extra $15/month.  

Is the Orbi better?  Is the Nighthawk just entry level?  I'll keep the router and eventually use it when my shop gets built and I can run a line to it.  

One last question, is Cat 5e enough or do I need to look at Cat6 cable?

Thanks!

Tom (somewhat inexperienced at this stuff).

For your last question, Cat5e cable is rated for gigabit at a length of 50 meters, so you should be fine with that.

Mike

Orbi.  I tried the nighthawk and had all kinds of stability issues. Orbi had been flawless.

Keep in mind both of these systems need to be wired properly for true mesh.

Most people actually install them in repeater mode not knowing what they are doing. You MUST interconnect meshed routers with a cable to be true mesh. Otherwise you are intoducing a ton of latency as the satellite AP actually becomes a repeater, which also causes more air traffic.

@Obsessed


So these need to be connected via ethernet cable, correct?  Meaning the satellites should be connected to the Orbi router?  The package is one orbi router and two orbi satellites.  I was under the impression that the satellites just needed to be plugged into a wall and no ethernet was needed.  So is the air traffic and latency going to be so bad that I won't even notice any increase in bandwidth, or does it mean I simply won't get the same speed vs hardwire?  Say hardwire is 600, would the reduction be 50%, or are we talking like 10%?

Depends on how much air traffic you have, connection quality, etc.

Latency will be at least double. Throughput could be anywhere on the full spectrum. You'd have to just rest it and see. The problem is a lot of the hardware in these mesh in a box is junk to keep cost down. I tried a few of them and finally just made my own mesh network, and that was even with hardwiring them.

I wound up going with three Archer AX6000s and it does okay now. 42 devices on my network so it's a lot to handle.

I'd 100% figure out a way to get a cable ran to each satellite though. You'll notice the latency if you have anything more than VERY basic network requirements.